text:
The Lovertine: Watch my TV interview on TFO!
Life is strange and unpredictable. You never know what's coming for ya. And I wouldn't have it any other way. A few months ago, you'll remember I was interviewed and photographed for a Toronto Life feature , which itself was a lot of fun. Well, more people saw that interview than I bargained for.
I was contacted by the good folks over at TFO 24.7, the Franco-Ontarian TV station here in Canada. They noticed that I speak French, and that many of my love letters are in French, and they asked if they could come over and film me for a Valentine's Day segment.
They came over and interviewed me for 5 hours. The finished TV segment is less than 4 minutes, it's a lot of work that goes into making a mere 4 minutes! They filmed me in my bedroom here in Toronto, which I have decorated with the letters, old photographs, antique furniture and typewriters, and then they filmed me at an antique shop and a café.
I really like the way this came out. The music they use is super sweet and it makes my 9 x 15 bedroom look much larger than it actually is! I'm also a little embarrassed, just because this is my bedroom and I'm inviting all of you strangers into my tiny little corner of the world, but hey…. I WOULD DOOOOO ANYTHING FOR LOVVVVVVVE. Har har.
I think this is my favourite shot in the entire segment.
Anyway, watch the entire segment below! It's in French, of course, but you will probably still get the gist of it even if you don't speak French. Enjoy! Savourez-le!


text:
one of a kinds & new (thinner) chains...
Forgot to mention that one of the reasons I was sharing this is because I recently downsized all of my chains. These are the first in the series of more petite chains, only 1mm thick. I had some issues with my previous supplier and I also like thinner chains and smaller beads myself so this is sort of to announce that the silver & gold plated chains will be this thinner kind and subsequently the beads will be a bit smaller to fit the smaller proportions. I will add a new photo to the end of this post as example.
I haven't shared anything from my jewelry shop for a while. I've just been trying to keep up, running your own business is time consuming at best. While I wish I had time to put out a more full collection or line, my time is limited. Here are a few things I've been working on, each one of a kind. If they are well received I may make more but we'll see.
It's always hard to design new pieces. I know what I would like and wear but that isn't always the same as other people, what makes us unique no? Testing out different styles in small quantities to see the response seems to work best for me and I'm usually surprised as to what people like the most. Sometimes I'll put something out there that I'm really excited about and very few people seem to respond well and on the contrary I might make something I wasn't too thrilled about at first and it just takes off. Funny how that happens.
I'll be adding these to the shop tonight as well as a few other in the coming days.
So what do you think of these pieces?
Any shapes or colors you'd like to see?
Other Stories
15 comments:
- christineMarch 06, 2012
nice! love the neon and the long rigatoni-like shapes. i would like to see a mini collection for those of us who like more delicate pieces and don't/can't wear big chunky jewelry.ReplyDelete
I am a big fan of the neon yellow/nude trend :) This necklace is really pretty !!!ReplyDelete
I love the earrings, but maybe if they were small - two size option perhaps? this size would engulf me! :) Love the neon/nude colour combo.ReplyDelete
These are awesome! Love those earrings! The color is gorgeous!ReplyDelete
I love love love the new earrings! Not so much a fan of the smaller chain but totally understand people being into it.ReplyDelete
I wore my yellow geo earrings a few days back and got tons of compliments!
i love the new necklaces! it has been so exciting to see your shop grow so much, it is incredibly inspiring! i think that your beads are great, but your sense of color is what makes your pieces feel so special.ReplyDelete
these are gorgeous... i need something from your shop ASAP!ReplyDelete
lovely!! modern, simple and eye-catcher. Nice!ReplyDelete
Beautiful! I love the neon!ReplyDelete
I agree, your sense of colour combos is great, I never would have thought of nude and neon and it works soooo well. I love the geometric beads, not so keen on the tubular ones but they are still great!ReplyDelete
Those earrings are super cute!ReplyDelete
I love that you added that neon yellow - it's super trendy now, especially with that nude color! Lovely!ReplyDelete
love the neutral+neon on the heather gray. delicate but edgy all at the same time, nicely doneReplyDelete
love these! just perfect colors and shapes!ReplyDelete
These are all so great thank you for sharing! My fave is the necklace with the neon yellow cubes and faceted nude beads.ReplyDelete
I think its really smart that you are putting a few ideas out there to see what peoples responses will be. As you mentioned, I often get so excited about a design I love and sometimes get mixed reviews and they end up sitting in inventory.
X, Meredith at Ditty Drops (www.dittydrops.etsy.com)
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
1. What is W+A doing in this project?
We are converting the base station for the provider Sunrise. These stations will usually provide LTE technology services to the end customer when our work is done.
2. What is the approach to or course of action for tackling such an assignment?
The Sunrise network plan is the basis. As soon as it is disclosed to us, we send our engineers on site surveys to analyse the installations on site, define the technical solutions and, where indicated, plan any additional building work. The actual extension takes place after an engineering phase that takes place in-house and at Huawei. Teams of two to four engineers travel to the installations, convert the site to LTE technology and integrate them in the Sunrise network.
3. How big is the project?
We had around 600 major integration assignments in 2015. Then there are antenna swaps, site surveys and many minor special assignments.
4. Special assignments?
The need for coordination increases exponentially whenever larger construction work is required to install additional antennae, base stations, RRUs, etc. The challenge is to get absolutely everything spot on.
5. What characterises W+A in this project?
We are extremely flexible, find fast solutions for the client, routinely think a step ahead and deliver first-class installation quality.
6. Impact on the daily life of Joe Public?
The little bars on our smartphones at the upper edge depend directly on our work. Its impact is therefore directly noticeable in the mobile phone network more than anywhere else.
7. A look ahead to the future …
4G will soon be standard and will be followed by the next technological jump forwards. We are ready for it.


text:
R.B.I. Baseball 14 a hit with Orioles' Jones
DETROIT -- Hitting a baseball is hard. Hitting a baseball in video games? Not so much, which is why Orioles center fielder Adam Jones has had so much fun playing the newly revamped classic R.B.I. Baseball 14 game.
R.B.I. Baseball 14 is now available on Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and Apple App Store. Jones is a spokesman for the new video game, and he proudly announced that he beat pal Quintin Berry and the game's creator recently, including topping Berry with the mercy rule.
"The game is fun," said Jones, who got to play for the first time at the end of Spring Training. "It brings back the old '90s feeling of the game and it's like playing Super Nintendo all over again. I miss those days."
The game, last released in the late 1990s, is different than your average video game.
R.B.I. Baseball 14 isn't as much of a simulator like the popular MLB The Show franchise. Instead, it is an arcade-style game, similar to the original version. The new game is also designed to be fast paced, so the user can play a full nine innings in roughly 20 minutes.
Jones said he prefers the simplicity of the game, and the center fielder was excited to get the chance to play early.
"You got all these games that are super high-tech. This game is just straight to the point -- swing the bat, run the bases," Jones said. "Nowadays you can have one guy lead off and have one guy steal, and it's too technical for me. I can't be thinking too much."
Jones laughed after his last statement, before adding -- again -- how good he was already at test driving the new game.
"It's been fun," he said. "I've had fun having to use that mercy rule."


text:
Sorry if I'm repeating something that has been raised, generally I try to read through all the comments before posting but on this one the 144 was just too much. As such I realise this comment in itself might never get read, but it is a little important in relation to your note about CE marking.
DO NOT just put the CE mark on a box without testing, because its illegal, even if you mark it as for 14+ only. There's an odd misconception that marking a game as 14+ means you can put on a CE mark without testing and its just not true. The CE mark shows that your game doesn't have dangerous chemicals, shattering pieces and that it doesn't burst into flames when warm and you're actually not allowed to have those things happen to someone even when they're 15 years old. The testing is less severe for those under 7 years old but its still there on products intended for people over 60. If you put a CE mark on a game without testing and someone gets hurt by a shattering component you're potentially in very serious legal trouble. Distributors will ask for the mark because you can't ship into the EU without it and I know of some large distributors who have been guilty of pushing the 14+ idea, but if it goes wrong its not their responsibility to have done the testing, its yours.
15 January 2014 | 145 Comments
It's been a wild ride over the last few months while shipping Euphoria to 4,765 Kickstarter backers worldwide. If you haven't read anything else I've written about worldwide order fulfillment, I would recommend that you first read this entry.
Shipping Euphoria has been an amazing learning experience for me, and I want to share what I've learned with other Kickstarter creators. This will probably be a long post, but hopefully you find it helpful at the right time for your project.
I believe it's a Kickstarter creator's responsibility to find the best, most affordable way to ship their product to their backers. Period.
Ever since I posted the blog entry titled How to Provide "Free" Shipping Worldwide on Kickstarter: A Comprehensive Guide, I've heard grumbling from other project creators about backers who send that link to them and ask why they can't offer better shipping rates.
I get it, I really do–if my backers didn't like what I was doing, and they kept sending me link from some random dude's blog to me, I might get a little annoyed too. The thing is, though, I like when my backers push me to be a better project creator, and I bet you do too. Change can be a little annoying, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
There are two points that those other project creators have said to me a number of times, so I want to address them here:
- "Shipping isn't free, so why did you say it's free?" Here's the deal: Shipping is never free, not for any project–that's why it's in quotes in the title of my blog entry about shipping. Shipping is often included on Kickstarter. Look at my reward description on the Euphoria project page: "US, Canada, and European Union only (free shipping & customs included)." You may not believe it, but I condone charging backers for shipping. You shouldn't subsidize shipping for certain regions and not others. Instead, level the playing field by using a variety of solutions so that backers spend as little as possible on shipping.
- "You can use Amazon fulfillment because you sold thousands of games, but most Kickstarter creators only sell a few hundred games. Your shipping solution is thus impossible for most projects." Au contraire, my friends. Amazon fulfillment centers accept case-packed items, not just big pallets of games. So as long as you follow their very specific guidelines for packages, even if you only sell a handful of products to backers in Canada and in the EU, you can consolidate those products in a shipment to Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk and have them send out the products at a fraction of the cost. Note that this is more of a backup than anything else–hopefully you'll be able to sell at least 100 products to backers in Europe. If you base your shipping prices on the Amazon fulfillment method from day one on your Kickstarter campaign, you have a much greater chance at attracting those 100 backers. Plus, you'll be shipping from within the EU, which in itself is a great service to EU backers (and Canadian backers for Amazon.ca shipments).
My point is, the solutions are out there. I know it's a little daunting. But these are the responsibilities that come with being a Kickstarter creator–from the minute you decide to launch a campaign until, well, forever, you are a business owner.
Last, let me be clear that my solution is not the only solution. There are lots of different ways to fulfill orders. Find the one that's the best for your product and your backers and implement it.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment Tips
I discussed why we use Amazon multi-channel fulfillment in my previous post, so I won't go into that here. But I did want to add a few tips I've learned from shipping Euphoria:
- Make lots of extra Kickstarter games. I made about 150 extra Kickstarter copies of Euphoria to account for missing and damaged games. Guess how many I have left of those extras? 17 (no, they're not for sale) [UPDATE 1/19: about 45 deluxe and supreme copies mysteriously showed up at Amazon. I'm not quite sure where they came from, but I'm glad we have a little more buffer room now!] The last thing you want is to not be able to fulfill your Kickstarter rewards because you didn't make enough games. Also, Amazon is not good at telling you when a package is returned to their fulfillment center. So you might think you've fulfilled all backer rewards, and a month later you get an e-mail from a backer saying that they never received their product. You track it, and sure enough, it was returned to Amazon. So you better still have a Kickstarter version to send them.
- Have replacement boxes. Amazon actually does a really good job of packaging products…for the most part. Out of the 5,300 games we shipped via Amazon fulfillment, I think I heard from about 20 backers that their games were damaged in transit. So what do you do? We didn't have replacement boxes, so we asked backers not to ask for replacements if there was just a little ding or dent. But some boxes are completely mangled. So in the future, Panda will send us replacement game boxes packed to the brim with replacement parts (credit to Chris Matthew at Panda for thinking of that).
- The fewer versions of the game, the better. I've written about this before, but I want to reiterate it from the shipping perspective because fulfillment centers can mess up and send backers the wrong version of the game even if they have different bar codes. If you have 2 versions of the game, it's rarely a big deal–maybe someone gets slightly more than what they paid for, or they get slightly less and you send them replacement parts. But what if you have 5 versions of the game? Or 10? Every little mistake creates a ripple effect on your time and your funds. Reduce the probability for error by having as few version of the product as possible.
- It's a bit tricky to use Amazon's bulk upload spreadsheet for orders containing multiple SKUs. If you upload a spreadsheet with two identical rows (i.e., the same address, name, order number, etc) except for different SKUs on each row, they will consolidate the two rows into one order. I've confirmed through a combined Tuscany/Treasure Chest shipment that this works.
- Dated order IDs are really helpful. This is a neat little trick I learned when assigning order IDs. Put the date in the order. That way when the product is shipped, you can see from the notification e-mail you get from Amazon how long they took to ship the product after you entered it. Also, when a backer asks you when you shipped their reward, you can tell right from the order ID. The order IDs are by far the best way to locate rewards you've shipped through Amazon, so make sure you have a good system for them. The format I use for a shipment sent on December 17, 2013 is: 1217130000 (the second order I ship that day is 1217130001 and so on).
- How to isolate and fix shipping errors. When you upload a bulk order to Amazon, there is a good chance that Amazon will report a few errors to you. You'll download this ugly text file that doesn't make any sense. Here's the trick to figuring out what that file means: Select all, copy, and and paste it onto a spreadsheet. Suddenly it'll make perfect sense. All you have to do then is fix and manually re-upload each of the orders that had errors (you don't need to cancel them or re-enter any of the others).
- Shoplocket. It's more profitable for me when a backer orders a game from my website via ShopLocket than from my Amazon store (due to Amazon's fees). I continue to really like what ShopLocket is doing, and I look forward to having them incorporate an Amazon API so that orders through ShopLocket will automatically place a multi-channel fulfillment order on Amazon (right now I have to manually enter them). Unlike other payment processing systems, ShopLocket specifically focuses on post-crowdfunding sales, so their platform is catered to Kickstarter creators. If you contact Rajen at ShopLocket (email@example.com) and ask for the Stonemaier discount, he'll give you a nice discount. (Stonemaier doesn't get any kickbacks from this–it's just something we asked ShopLocket to offer so that we could save money for fellow project creators.)
I didn't write much about Amazon.co.uk in my previous shipping entry because I hadn't used them. Now I have, so I can vouch for them.
I'll say this: I don't speak German, so using Amazon.de has been difficult. Google Chrome translates the site automatically, which is great, but I'm always a little worried that I'll press the wrong button and tell Amazon.de to destroy all of my games. However, you should still use Amazon.de for games headed to Germany, because it's really cheap to ship within Germany.
However, for all other products–Kickstarter or retail–you should send them to Amazon.co.uk. They've done a great job, although the did send a few supreme games to deluxe backers and vice versa (not many, but enough to make me wonder if they had a faulty bar code reader). However, they swiftly reimbursed me for any of those mistakes.
Important note: Make sure to mark your games as 14+ and include the CE symbol on them.
Here's why you should use Amazon.co.uk instead of Amazon.de for all non-German EU shipments:
- English. You speak English, they invented English…it's just easier this way.
- Speed. If your product is shipping directly from China, it'll get there faster than Amazon.de (about 7 days faster).
- Retail Sales. If you intend to leave some of your product at Amazon for people in the EU to buy, Amazon.co.uk is better. I actually just learned that today from a helpful customer named Upkar who informed me that if he buys a product valued at $41 or more from them, they ship for free to most countries in the EU. Apparently Amazon.de doesn't do that for non-German customers. [Update: Amazon.co.uk is starting to charge for some of these orders.]
- Competence. If you use the shipping company I used, Dimerco–and you should, because they're an absolute joy to work with (contact Justin at email@example.com and tell him I sent you)–for your products to get to Amazon.de, they have to go through a company called ITG in Germany that almost killed my soul in December. I've never experienced that level of incompetence. Dimerco was awesome throughout the entire process, but they were at the whim of ITG, and they will continue to be (they said it was an anomaly and that ITG is usually fine, but I can't risk it. My backers come first, not ITG).
- Ireland: For some reason, copies of Euphoria shipped from Amazon.de to Ireland took nearly a month to arrive. That's ridiculous. I shipped a package to Ireland from Amazon.co.uk the other day, and it took 4 days to arrive. Much better.
- Registration. As I discuss on the original shipping entry, registering a company in Germany is really tough, so instead you have to find an importer of record to sign for your games and pay for the taxes before you reimburse them. I'm very fortunate that a backer stepped up after the Viticulture campaign to serve in this role. In fact, another backer has stepped up to serve in this role in the UK too, which is awesome. But, there might be a better way for most other creators, at least for the UK: Register your company in the UK. It's fast, cost-effective, and you can do it. Full credit to Phil at 5th Street Games for figuring this out, and I'll let him explain how you can do it below:
After following the link above, click on the 'Register for VAT' link in the right-hand column. Just follow the prompts and you'll be registered in about 5 – 10 minutes.
Once VAT number registration clears, you can register with Amazon.co.uk. You can then send shipments to them and utilize their Fulfilled By Amazon service for the UK and much of the EU. You need a US passport to fully activate the account.
Thanks Phil!
UPDATE OCTOBER 2014: 4px has not followed my instructions for properly packaging the small shipment of Viticulture I had them handle recently, so for now I cannot recommend using this company. Agility is much better. If you have any suggestions, please contact Jamey at email@example.com. Read more about this here.
For the longest time I looked for a company that would ship games directly from China to Asia and Australia. Why ship the games all the way from China to St. Louis, only to ship them back to Hong Kong or Taiwan? It didn't make sense.
Then I found 4PX (English site here).
4PX is a shipping and fulfillment company in Shenzhen, China. You know what else is in Shenzhen, China? Panda Game Manufacturing. Guess who picks up packages for free from manufacturers in Shenzhen? You guessed it: 4PX.
Before I outline the costs, I want to tell you the catch: 4PX did not meet all of my expectations. It was a pleasure to work with Cindy on Euphoria (update: It's a big company with a lot of turnover, so Cindy is no longer there, and I've gone through two people since then, neither of whom speak English well. There are e-mail addresses on their websites you can try to get in touch with someone who can work with you) to ship games to backers in Asia and Australia, but 4px warehouse did not follow my instructions to put padding around the games. Instead they just put them in a box (originally they were going to uses a thin plastic bag! Good thing we caught that) and dropped them in the mail. Fortunately very few games were damaged, but it could have been disastrous.
Let's talk about costs. I created a chart to compare costs of shipping from 4PX to places where you're likely to get backers but cannot use Amazon fulfillment centers to the cost of freight + shipping from your home in the US using USPS. I also assumed that you would use USPS packaging for all orders except when you ship the 7-game bulk package, for which I added $2 for the packing materials.
Also, if you use a fulfillment company in China, it means that you'll be delivering to some backers over a month before US, Canadian, and EU backers get their products. That also means that those backers in Asia will get their games well before you do. Which is fine, but if they're missing a piece in their game, you can't replace it for quite a while. So have your manufacturer send you some replacement parts so you don't have to tell those backers to wait a month (more on that below).
Scheduling and Timing
The Kickstarter for Euphoria ended on June 12. Panda told us that we needed to have the final files to them by June 22 if we were going to deliver games to backers by Christmas (that's about a 6-month allocation for production, freight shipping, and individual shipping).
Overall, we came pretty darn close to meeting that goal. There was an issue with a mislabeled pallet showing up at Amazon.co.uk, which delayed the delivery of 110 games for a month. The US games got stuck at customs for a week, the Irish games took longer than they should have to arrive, and a few backers in South America still need to get their games from customs. But we got really close.
However, we really, really shouldn't have tried to ship during the holidays. Terrible idea. Here's why:
- The volume of incoming and outgoing shipments is exponentially higher in December than the rest of the year. This shouldn't affect freight–your packages are fine on the ocean. But once they hit port, it's crowded. Once they hit customs, it's backlogged. Once they try to schedule a delivery to Amazon for fulfillment, they're delayed. And once they ship to backers, they're just one of a million other packages being shipped from Amazon every day.
- A lot of people travel over the holidays. That means they won't be at their normal address to receive their package. It increases the chances the package will be stolen or not be delivered at all. Backers can update their addresses for the holidays, but then you're constrained to a very tight window to get the game to the correct address. I suspect this might be an issue for EU backers in August as well, as that's when many Europeans travel.
- People are counting on the games as gifts. If you say you're going to deliver by Christmas and you're one day late, you just missed Christmas. That's not just for gifts, but also for retailers who back your product and expect to have it by Christmas for their customers. So if you want to deliver by Christmas, you should really aim for late November delivery so there's no chance you'll miss that deadline.
- You want your games in retail stores before Christmas. If you're running a business, that's just a fact. Thus you need to deliver games to backers well before Christmas so you can enter your games into distribution channels in mid-November–that way they'll hit stores in early December and you can. Being a successful Kickstarter creator means having a retail plan, and Christmas should be part of it.
- End-of-year best-of lists. This is unique to games, but it's worth mentioning. Euphoria is a 2013 game, but it didn't reach most reviewers until 2014. Thus they're all just now reviewing it (it's January 15 in case you're reading this in the future). So it's too late for best-of-2013 lists, but Euphoria isn't eligible for best-of-2014 lists. So it's kind of in this dead zone for reviews, which isn't good, because many, many gamers look to reviewers for their purchasing decisions.
Conclusion: Don't ship in December. Ship in October, or November at the latest. You can promise December shipping, but that's really a buffer month just in case things go wrong.
Starlit Citadel: A Solution for Canadian Shipments
One other solution that I recently learned about for Canadian shipments is Starlit Citadel. You might know that name from their series of fantastic game overviews and reviews (Euphoria's is here), but they're primarily a retailer in Vancouver. They're expanding their services to include Kickstarter fulfillment. Although I haven't used their service, I thought it would be worth sharing with you if you're interested in a more personal level of service than you'll get from Amazon.ca. Here's what Kaja from Starlit Citadel has to say:
If a pallet of goods is shipped to us in Vancouver, BC, we will break it down into individual orders and ship them directly to Kickstarter backers. As all of the stock would be shipping out almost immediately, there's not storage cost. We would charge the following rates to ship 1 simple order per backer (1-2 individual games, or a pre-made bundle containing multiple items), totaling 2kg or less, anywhere in Canada:
- Receiving cost: $20.00/hour, including unpacking all of your games, and inspecting them for damages. We can receive roughly $1000 worth of goods in 1 hour.
- Handling cost: $3.00/order, including collecting items, packing them with appropriate padding, creating a shipping label, and sending tracking details to the recipient.
- Shipping cost: $13.00/order if packed in a 13″x10″x4″ box (fits standard-sized Euro games like Pandemic, Puerto Rico), or $14.00/order if packed in a 12″x12″x4″ box (fits standard Fantasy Flight Games, and larger Euros like Dungeon Petz, Euphoria). This covers Canada Post Expedited Parcel service, which ships to Ontario/Quebec in 4-5 business days, and across the country in about 1 week. Shipping is fully insured, and we would be responsible for missing parcels, damaged goods, etc.
Other services that we can provide for an additional charge include handling cross-border shipping and brokerage for the initial shipment (we have the option of using a shipping address in Blaine, WA and bringing stock across ourselves), processing more complex orders (multiple tiers of custom backer rewards, etc), and handling backer support within Canada by sending out replacement parts for defective copies. The above is a basic estimate for our most simple service, and we're happy to discuss every designer's specific needs with them and providing a customized quote.
Thanks Kaja! If you're interested in this service, you can contact Kaja at firstname.lastname@example.com. If you do use this service, I would recommend shipping your Canadian games directly from China to Vancouver (if applicable). You don't want to pay customs twice by shipping the games to the US and then trucking them up to Canada.
UPDATE: James Mathe of Minion Games wrote a retrospective about the shipping process for several of his projects here. It's definitely worth a read.
Also read: 5 Shipping Partners in the EU for Kickstarter Reward Fulfillment
Leave a Comment
145 Comments on "Lessons Learned: Insights, Mistakes, and Solutions for Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter"
Sorry if I'm repeating something that has been raised, generally I try to read through all the comments before posting but on this one the 144 was just too much. As such I realise this comment in itself might never get read, but it is a little important in relation to your note about CE marking.
Hi Jamey,
Thanks for all the info about launching a project.
I'm getting ready to launch a project on kickstarter, but am hesitant to make it available worldwide because 1) i feel like it d be easier to do small scale on first time and, 2) im afraid of being overwhelmed with demands and fees. (self fulfilling)
Is it possible to only ship a Kickstarter project to US? Do you think it'd be a mistake?
What's the minimum amount of orders that you'd justify a fulfillment company, and the extra sea freight, for?
You got a great resource here. Can you elaborate more on "Important note: To avoid testing in the EU, make sure to mark your games as 14+ and do not include the CE symbol on them." please?
I was under the impression you had to have the CE mark to sell in Europe. What am I missing?
Thanks again for all the info!
Hi Jamey. You've provided a lot of very useful information on your website, which I'm sure has been of great help to many people running Kickstarter projects, and for businesses looking for the best ways to get products out to customers around the world.
I'm based in the UK and my question concerns Amazon fulfilment in the United States. Assuming that my project attracts backers in the US, will I need to find an importer of record to import my shipment into the Amazon US warehouse for US distribution, or will I first need to register a company in the US to be able to do this? Is it possible to use a UK limited company to get Amazon fulfilment done in the US? I would very much appreciate any help or advice you can give! Thanks in advance!
Hi Jamey. After I reviewed your international shipping partners spreadsheet (which is AWESOME, by the way) and compared those estimated prices with what I've calculated for Amazon shipping within the US, it appears that our US backers could be paying more than backers in non-US locations. That doesn't seem right. Our product is considered "oversize" by Amazon's measurements (not in weight–it will be about 9 lbs. with packaging). Were the estimates you provided in your spreadsheet for "standard" or "oversize"? Thanks for any insight you can give!
[…] Lessons Learned: Insights, Mistakes, and Solutions for Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter: This entry, written after I shipped Euphoria (January 2014), delves deeper into some of the nuances of worldwide reward fulfillment. […]
Hi Jamey, there's a lot of great information in this post, and your previous one on the topic of international shipping. You probably touched on all of the points I'm about to mention below somewhere in your articles, but there's a lot of content and it's easy to miss some of the finer details. Here are some things that I feel are important before a project creator decides to follow this advice. I may have got some of my numbers and other facts wrong, so people should do their own research and calculations before following my suggestions, either:
1) The more destinations your printing company needs to ship to, the higher the freight charges will be. If they ship all of your games to a single location in the US for distribution, it will probably be $1000-$2000+ cheaper than if you were to freight your games to the US, Canada, and multiple destinations in the EU.
2) Last I checked, Amazon charges a long-term storage fee twice per year of $22.50 per cubic foot for any items that have been in their facility for more than a year. This is in addition to the more modest monthly storage fees. As a real-world example, let's say that you've funded an average Kickstarter campaign with 500 backers, and your packaging is 12″ x 12″ x 3″ (0.25 cubic feet). To get the best pricing from your printing company, you'll probably have 1000 unsold units left over after taking care of your backers. If you don't sell these within a year, then in addition to the $150ish per month (~$1800 per year) in monthly storage fees, you'll also pay another $5600 every 6 months ($11,000 per year) to store those 1000 games until they're sold off. This isn't nearly as bad for a smaller box, but it can easily add up to thousands of dollars in storage fees if you're not careful.
3) Keep points #1 & #2 in mind when considering how many distribution centers to ship to, and how many units to send to each location. Originally I was planning to split inventory more evenly between the US & the EU but after crunching numbers I'll probably keep most of it in the US, with just a few extra units abroad, so that I can more easily pull them out of storage if need be. I'll also probably have a good chunk of inventory shipped to my office for storage, where originally I had planned to have it all in Amazon's network.
4) Amazon does not really give you the option of which facility to ship your items to. Keep this in mind when estimating your freight, because there may be a significant difference between shipping to California and shipping to Pennsylvania, or to one of several FBA centers in the UK. That said, from what I'm told, most stuff coming from China to the US ends up in their main Pennsylvania facility.
Some helpful links:
Again, all of the above was probably already covered in your posts to some degree. I'm just pointing out these details so that people put more thought into planning their reward tiers around a best-case-scenario, and before they decide to ship all of their inventory to Amazon rather than storing a roomful of games in their homes.
For the next game project I get funded, I'll still probably use Amazon fulfillment, but on a much more conservative scale, and I don't plan to offer free shipping to the EU. The added freight charges and Amazon storage fees don't justify it for my small projects. I'll still offer discounted shipping compared to what it would cost if everything came from the US via USPS, but not free. Like I said, there's a lot of great advice in these articles and across your blog as a whole, but it's easy to overlook some details that could be financially devastating for some people. I hope this summary is helpful.
"1. Register for a VAT number
After following the link above, click on the 'Register for VAT' link in the right-hand column. Just follow the prompts and you'll be registered in about 5 – 10 minutes."
Lies! Haha. 2 hours later I estimate that less than 1/3rd of the way through the process (and currently on hold waiting for an email response to a question the website doesn't answer). So we're looking at a couple day adventure to self register. …For the record.
I'll keep ya posted how it turns out.
Hah! The info here is legendary but I agree with the slog through the VAT Registration… Should have started this a month ago.
Just a quick note. If you date your Amazon order IDs with YR MT DY instead of DY MT YR you can track all of your orders chronologically forever instead of orders mixing up each year since they're first level or sorting is the month instead of the year. So this would be 1317120000 from your example above instead of the 1217130000 you have. Sorry, didn't mean for that to sound like a correction, but thought it would help if you have orders over many years that you wanted to simply order all order chronologically.
[…] Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter via StonemaierGames […]
I have a couple of quick questions about using 4PX. They seem like an excellent option and I have gotten some quotes from them. In your first mention of using them you stated that the packaging on the games was not quite up to snuff (no bubble wrap, etc.) I am wondering how you resolved this and what I need to specify to them to get the packaging I want?
Also, 4PX offers shipping through many different carriers FedEx, DHL or EMS. I am wondering if you can tell me which carrier you have used?
Thanks as always for so much great information and creating a great community of information sharing. (Thanks David for info on Inventory Placement, that is very timely.)
Hi Jamey, Another Amazon related question: I see that they do not claim to support deliveries from Amazon UK to Norway or Switzerland. Is that your experience? Should I give it a try when the stock is inventoried or just not bother and send those parcels from New Zealand? Thanks, Amanda
Thanks for that link David. I wish I had known that 3 months ago!
You can ship all your products to a single Amazon warehouse, but not by default. You'll need to edit the FBA setting for "Inventory Placement Option" as explained here:
No – a single version (one print run) – I requested to send 240 to the USA and that's the division I was told to send to three places.
yes, that's right. it may have been my newbieness in dealing with the Amazon interface – in that I just took what it dished out without questioning it – but that's what they told me so I followed it thinking it was the norm!
It would have saved me quite a bundle if Amazon had allowed me to ship my 240 US units to just one FC. In reality they decided to split it across three (NV, PA, and TN) which cost me a lot more in shipping & freight.
Hi Jamey, how's it going?
I'm starting to gather quotes for my first Kickstarter project. It's pretty exciting/terrifying! I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help with.
* Let's say I'm using Amazon Multichannel Fulfillment. If a printer were to ask me what ZIP code to ship the product to, what's the best answer (assuming it arrives at a NY/NJ port)? I'd imagine that the game will go to an Amazon Fullfillment Center (FC), but which one? I know they charge to spread the product around multiple FCs once it arrives at the first FC. Is there a way to minimize this charge by shipping to a more centrally-located FC?
* Let's say my project funds, the product gets printed and shipped, and Amazon has it at all the appropriate FCs. Let's say I have 400 backers to ship to (just to use a nice round fictitious number). I upload all the relevant info and spreadsheets and click go. How long will Amazon take to ship to the 400 backers? Will I need to account for shipping time, or is it just a drop in the bucket for the Amazon shipping behemoth?
Hey Jamey,
I'm using 4PX for my Asian and South American shipments – they recently contacted me asking which warehouse I would like to use:
"We have contacted by your supplier to pickup from their factory, and the supplier said the goods are going to HK. Please advise which warehouse that you are going to use, and which countries are these goods going?"
I was under the impression that 4PX used a warehouse in Shenzhen – but perhaps it's actually in HK?
Do you remember which warehouse you used? Thanks! -Cody
[…] Lessons Learned: Insights, Mistakes, and Solutions for Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter […]
Jamey – I have a friend of mine who lives in Germany and owns a business. I am asking him if he will be my importer of record and having a little trouble explaining to him exactly what I need and exactly what he needs to do for me. Could you give me the best explanation to provide to him? For other Kickstarter creators, I am also looking into creating a UK limited company. I think that I have found a good source. I will let you know how that works out if I go down that road! Thank you so much for helping all of us figure all this stuff out!
That would be fantastic! I was counting on this working!
Hello Jamey, I have run into a big snag registering my business in the UK with Companies House. After sending my form back and forth several times for errors, I finally hit a road block. Companies House told me that I could not register without a physical UK address? Can you or anyone else help me out here? Has anyone else on this post been successful at registering with Companies House from the US? I was able to register for VAT taxes no problem. I could really use some advice! Thank you so much!
Io Loren,
I've since learned you don't need a physical address in the UK to sell / ship via Amazon.co.uk. You can just ship directly to their warehouse much like you can in the United States.
Not having a physical address in the UK does carry some potential added costs, though; returns to you will be more expensive (as they're shipped all the way back to the US), and reclaiming inventory from Amazon.co.uk if you accidentally send too much will be expensive to ship back to yourself in the US.
My apologies to you (and Jamey's other readers) on not properly updating him on that development when I discovered it in my researches.
Phil: Thank you so much for your response! I was able to register my business for VAT taxes and I have a valid VAT tax number. I just want to make sure that my project is EU friendly and that I will pay the customs and VAT taxes so that my backers will not have to do this. With my VAT tax number I am all set in your opinion?
Also, I will not need a UK business number to set up my Amazon.uk account?
Hi Jamey. Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all the amazing info you've shared in these shipping articles, your blog, your kickstarters, etc. I'm comfortable with digital game distribution (relatively super easy!), but am looking into self-publishing our first board game, likely starting with a Kickstarter. There are a few things that are new to me in this, but the shipping/fulfillment aspect is definitely the part that has seemed most daunting! Your writing here really helps point the way, answers a lot of questions I've had, and brings my trepidation down several notches. I'll probably return with a detailed question or three down the line, but in the meantime I just wanted to say THANKS!
Global Fulfilment: Getting a kick out of getting your product to others.
Hi Jamey!
Just wondering what you did with your retail copies while international backers were having their pledges fulfilled. You mention that as soon as they landed in the distributor's warehouse they were fare game to be sold, so what did you do? Did those games sit in a warehouse somewhere, or did you just assume that the boat to the distributor would be slower than the packages to backers.
Wooow! @Jamey @Isaac – a bit off topic, sorry. I had been reading Jamey's posts a while, trying my best that the mistakes that I make be new, original, inventive :-) I am KS launching tomorrow. Somehow my eyes went to the date in your conversation, and it was /this week/! *this stuff is fresh off the oven*! Amazed by it all, Jamey, and oh so thankful!!!
I believe in being generous, but you beat me soundly – at least I do have a good role model to follow
Hey Jamey, I've got a customs question. You're comparing shipping to international backers using 4PX and by hand through USPS. If you go through USPS (and don't lie on the customs form about the value of the product), then you're going to hit your backers with extra customs charges. Do your backers run into these same charges when you use 4PX or someone like Impressions? Obviously 4PX shipping to Chinese backers would be fine, but what about, like, 4PX to Australia or Malaysia?
[…] Lessons Learned: Insights, Mistakes, and Solutions for Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter – Stonemaier Games […]
[…] wrote about this extensively on this post under the "Scheduling and Timing" section, but in short, do not attempt to deliver a […]
Oh… I think maybe I'm not factoring in the savings in terms of fright (fulfillment directly from China) with the 4PX scenario either :)
Yes absolutely. I think the thing that was throwing me off was the 4PX pricing chart's rates and it seeming like you could have not had enough money allocated to cover the entire shipping cost in some situations. Have you looked into Amazon Global Export at all, and if so do you have any assessment of it yet?
Oh wise Jamey….
Just curious about your math on allowing backers to pay for additional shipping just one time and add multiple games to their order without paying for additional shipping, like you did on the Tuscany campaign.
Will just throw out a hypothetical here. An Australian backer pays for a game, and pays the one additional shipping payment of 36 dollars. If they added another 6 games, according to your 4PX chart, that would be 7 games total costing 23 dollars each in shipping, or about 161 dollars. Any hints on how you can afford to only charge that backer a total of 36 additional dollars in that scenario for shipping?? I was thinking you were budgeting 14 per game toward shipping, so about 98 dollars in this scenario, so with the additional 36 you've got 134. Obviously that's not too far from 161. Is the gist of it that you're ok in this scenario taking a bigger hit on shipping since they've ordered more units?
Thanks for any insight you can provide!
Hi Jamey,
Can you tell us a bit more about this?
>You can't use Amazon's bulk shipment form for more than 1 product per destination.
You mention a workaround and I'm curious if this worked for you. I guess it will happen a lot that games are shipped together with their expansion in two seperate boxes. Doing this by hand will be crazy!
Thank you very much.
Cheers Jamey,
That is useful, I will look for an Importer of record.
I am talking to a bank about overseas account opening. Do you remember if Amazon Canada require a Canadian bank account?
Thank you
Hi Jamey
I am planning to ship Manifest to the UK, and fulfil all the EU orders from there, rather than shipping to Amazon Germany as well.
Do you think using an 'Importer of record' is recommended, rather than trying to do this remotely myself?
Also, I am unsure whether I need to do this in addition to, or instead of, registering as a business and getting a UK VAT number?
By the way, I don't know if Amazon US has changed this recently, but I've managed to setup on seller central and create shipments etc without having a US based bank account. It allowed me to input my master card, and my normal NZ based bank account, and asked me to agree to using Amazon's exchange rate conversion. UK Amazon is not as friendly, they insist on having a UK (or EU) bank acount.
Again, many thanks for all the really useful advice in your blogs.
Amanda Milne
SchilMil Games, New Zealand
Hi Jamey,
For some reason there is no link to directly replay to your answer – anyways many thanks!!!
Hello people! I´m in awe at the sight of this blog: It's like a beacon for our little start-up company. The prospect of getting international shipment right is daunting, but well worth the trouble IMHO. We will contact Dimerco, and tell them that you sent us there, Jamey. Hopefully they'll make you a special price :)
A little question for the community: we just called Amazon US to tell them that we will be shipping our game from China. We wanted to know which warehouse is the best for full US delivery, but they told us that it depends on the product, and that there is no way of knowing which warehouse is the one until we make the actual order.
In your experience, which warehouse will they refer us to? It is important for us to get east coast/ west coast right, as we asume freight expenses will change.
Hi Jamey,
I am a fan of your posts – you are my Kickstarter god!
You mention stuff about Amazon.de and the difficulty in bridging over the language gaps.
I am willing to help you with that – if you ever need help regarding the German language. Just email me. It will be my honor!
Thank you for your endlessly helpful insights,
Yes, my supplier is US based. I have tried companies such as DHL, USPS etc, but they just seemed really expensive. I didn't realize Dimerco did Transatlantic shipping too, I just figured they did your distribution in Germany. I will certainly send them an e-mail. Once again, thank you so much for your fast reply. I have no idea how you do that, knowing that you are very busy with Tuscany.
If I can find a cheap way to bulk-ship the EU bound games from the US to the EU it might work, but I haven't found a cheap solution yet…do you have any suggestions, even though you usually use amazon fulfillments?
Thanks for all this Jamey. Still, the shipping is giving me a massive headache, and my Kickstarter didn't even start yet. So complicated. I have a U.S. supplier. I live in the EU. What about I have them ship my game individually to U.S./ Canadian backers, in bulk to me in the Netherlands with me then individually shipping in the EU, and figuring something out for the rest of the world? Do you think that would be feasable? US shipping would be $13 per game. NL->any EU country would be $14 per game, and US-> bulk-> NL is yet to be determined. Love to hear your thoughts. Amazon fulfillment sounds so complicated.
In this post you recommend using Amazon.uk for all non German EU shipping. Is it possible to ship from Amazon.uk to Germany as well? As I don't have an amazon.de account set up and don't speak German I was thinking sticking with Amazon.uk for all of Europe might be the best option. Thanks so much for all you do!
Jamie you are amazing.
You do all this for us, The incredible blogs, sourcing, arranging discounts for fellow publishers without even arranging kickbacks, simply making a very difficult thing so much plainer and the only reason I can see is that you want to help others trying do what you've achieved spectacularly.
I wish there was an award we could all give to you.
Thank you.
Jamey – Another incredibly valuable post! I have been personally looking at 4PX for a while, it's good to hear your review of them!
For the book name – (just a small note, the polldaddy poll didn't even show up in Chrome browser) – I like the People, not Pawns. Very clever, looking forward to reading it! :)
Thanks again!
Wow. This is a great post. I really hope more Kickstarter Creators will share your views on providing the best shipping rates possible to backers. I always wondered why publishers would have their games made in China, send them to the US and then back out to us backers here in Asia… it really doesn't make any sense!
These posts about shipping are my favorite posts on this website. So much information! I love it. I'm not planning any Kickstarters but I saved them to Pocket for future reference.
As for the titles: I like the first one better. the other two have the tagline "Kickstart Your Dream Through the Power of Generosity" which I don't think is appealing. I feel like it's a bit condescending, like saying "I'll teach you to be generous", implying that potential readers of the book aren't.
The other two titles would be good too with the first title's tagline "The Winning Strategy to Kickstart Your Dream". I feel they all express the philosophy you shared on this blog an in your Kickstarter campaigns.
My personal favorite would be the mix-match "Stand out from the Crowd: The Winning Strategy to Kickstart Your Dream". I think it's catchy and appealing to the casual customer while still representing your line of thought.
Just my two cents! :)
[…] Games discusses the aftermath of offering cheap worldwide shipping [Link] They admit to some mistakes, but really, this looks to have been a mostly pain-free process […]
[…] Update: If you want to help me choose a title for the book, see the bottom of this post. […]
Do you know how Amazon.co.uk defines Western Europe and Central Europe. What countries are in each?
Jamey, this last post pushed aside all my doubts about pursuing cheaper fulfillment and shipping options for international backers. It made me understand not only that it is doable, but also why it is so important as a project creator to do this for backers. I want to make the best game possible, why not make the shipping the best possible as well. It is all part and parcel of being a creator. I really appreciate how clearly and concisely you laid it out and what an awesome atmosphere of sharing and support that you foster. I voted for People, not pawns as the title but I prefer the kickstart your dream through the power of generosity subtitle.
Had a chat with you on BGG about international fulfilment and you gave me some good advice on why screwing over international orders is bad. This post is a great compendium on various different options on cutting costs of international shipping. I hope more creators see these options that you have pointed out because it not only increases their profits, but cuts the cost for backers. Thanks for the article.
Jamey, another question for you. Is there a specific reason you didn't use amazon.co.jp or amazon.cn to do order fulfillment in Asia just like you did for Europe and Canada?
I'm just curious why you used 4PX when you could have used the same method you were already using
Hey Jamey… thanks for another great post. It seems like in every post I learn something new. Here is my suggestion for a title: One pledge at a time…
Jamey, I was going to send you an email but I thought I would post here so everyone could benefit from your answers.
I am currently trying to set up a multi-channel, worldwide fulfillment structure for Stones of Fate. I need to estimate the costs and so have gone over everything on the fulfillment by Amazon site. I saw their prices as
Order Handling – $4.75 (Standard, non-media)
Weight Handling – $0.45 (1-15 lb)
Pick and Pack – $0.75
Are these the only prices to account for? Or is there another additional fee for distance that I am not finding. This is only for Amazon US (I have not gotten to the others yet) and I am wondering if this is a flat fee to anywhere in the US. I can't seem to find anywhere where it mentions a shipping fee for distance.
Can you help clear this up?
Note that Amazon's fee structure will change on February 18, 2014. Here's the incoming pricing:
Clever titles, but do you think it might be better to use the word "kickstarter" in the title. That might give you a bit more traction from an SEO perspective (and possibly search results in general on book sites).
Creationism versus Creativity: Kickstart Your Dream
Fantastic to have an update on this Jamey. Looks like it'll be a lot more economical to ship down here to us in Australia with 4PX, but I'm pretty surprised that none of the local distributors have stepped up to take care of this. I'm planning a Kickstarter myself and am lucky enough to work at an importer, so will have a lot less hassle receiving shipments and getting through customs than most folks. I was wondering do you think yourself / other board game creators would be looking for a distribution partner in Australia? It wouldn't be massively cheaper (for your sizes, $5 for 1kg, $10 for 2kg), but I know that international shipping prices always turn me right off.
I'm curious, did you use Dimerco for all your freight shipping from China? I just fired off an email to Justin and let him know you referred me — thanks for the lead!
This post, your previous one about international shipping, and the Euphoria Stats post are together wildly useful. With your tips, I've gathered fulfillment cost info from Amazon.com (which are going up in February), Amazon.ca, and Amazon.uk to build into the financial model for my KS. The 4PX numbers cover the rest of the world. Amazingly, I now have a detailed cost model for fulfilling rewards to various backer locations.
Then I used your numbers from the stats post to make educated guesses about how my EU backers might break down geographically, allowing me to project my overall fulfillment costs.
That's all a hell of a lot of value to me, and I thank you sir!
I feel like I owe you money for this post. I'm used to thoughtful and useful articles from you, but this raised the bar considerably.
Unfortunately, it was a little too late for my current Kickstarter campaign but should help tremendously with the next.
Your book can't come soon enough. Thanks for always sharing your process and insight.
Another great entry Jamey… thank you for all the advice :)
Yea, it truly is an annoying period to be releasing on. It must be like make a super awesome movie 1 month before the Oscars, too late to be taken into consideration in any category, and too early for next year.
As for the title: I'm super allergic to titles with words like "winning, power, perfect, mind blowing and so on", it just comes across a bit TV shop'ish…. but it might also just be me, don't worry ;)
I like "People, not pawns"
Maybe with an ending like "a complete strategy to crowdfunding", or "a strategy for kickstarting your dream", "how to kickstart your dream", "from idea to Kickstarter"…
Best regards Emil
For Canadian fulfillment, I know that IndieBoards & Cards used Snakes & Lattes, out of Toronto. I don't know if that's any better, but I figure I would mention it.
I know what you're trying to get at with the wording of these titles, but the tone just doesn't seem quite right. I'd prefer something like "Connecting with Your Backers: The Winning Strategy to Kickstart Your Dream". That seems more genuinely your message rather than "Make it About Them," which has a false flavor to it even though I know that's not where you're coming from. When you connect with someone, it brings the two of you together and is about both of you. The role of both sides is important for the experience.
I like People Not Pawns as the main title, but I like Kickstart your dream through the power of generosity as the subtitle.
Great post! I'll admit that I do feel guilty now for not being willing to do the work to offer cheaper international shipping for my next project. But I'm planning for a much smaller campaign, so here's hoping it's okay.
[…] A complementary podcast to this post is live on Richard Bliss' Funding the Dream. If you read the following post, you should also read the accompanying piece I wrote after shipping Euphoria. […]


text:
Walker and Associates maintains a large wireless portfolio ranging from indoor to outdoor wireless access networks to a wide variety of business networking solutions. Wireless communication is a widely deployed technology that enables users to communicate with each other and share real-time information, regardless of where they are or what type of wireless device they are using. Whether you're implementing a Wi-Fi access network or building new broadband connectivity to remote areas, Walker has a solution for you.
Walker's strong partnerships with leading manufacturers and its ability to deploy multi-vendor solutions allow for specialized wireless communications solutions. Walker is dedicated to helping our customers maximize the investments in the network, offering secure, stable, standards based, and scalable solutions that can be deployed across many different network platforms.
Fixed Wireless Broadband
Wireless point-to-multipoint (PMP) solutions are proven around the world to be interference tolerant and provide consistent low latency for sensitive video and voice applications, making them ideal for last mile connectivity. Our wireless PMP products are a great alternative for copper loop replacement for high cost and hard to reach consumers, eliminating the need for expensive fiber plant trenching.
Microwave Radio
Designed to operate at high performance and availability standards, microwave radio systems have the capability to natively support any combination of TDM and Ethernet traffic. Supported frequencies includes 2 to 43 GHz, and includes non-traditional bands such as 24, 25, 28, 29, 31 and 42 GHz with capacities up to 1 Gbps, providing a range of options to fit various applications from the edge to the core.
Distributed Antenna System (DAS)
Indoor and outdoor distributed antenna systems (DAS) address a variety of coverage and capacity needs for wireless networks today. Indoor DAS extends wireless services throughout building and campuses, whereas outdoor DAS is ideal for wireless networks in diverse outdoor locations and large venues.
Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA)
Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA) enables service providers to deliver higher bandwidth, reduce power requirements, and decrease base station footprint compared to traditional tower sites using coaxial infrastructure.
Wireless LAN
The next-generation mobile workplace and home environment requires a wireless network that's faster and more reliable than ever. Wireless LAN (WLAN) and Wi-Fi solutions address today's requirements and enable seamless mobility, while extending wireless range, significantly improving productivity and collaboration for users across the world.


text:
While director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Away We Go) has done a lot of press conferences for his upcoming James Bond movie, Skyfall, I'm pretty sure what you're about to read is the first interview with any substance. Usually, various press conferences for the film (including the one he did Sunday afternoon in Istanbul, Turkey) are about the city they're filming in and what is it like to work with Daniel Craig or Naomie Harris.
However, on Sunday afternoon, shortly after the press conference, I participated in a small roundtable interview with Mendes where he actually went into detail about the movie. He talked about how the script benefited from the production being pushed back, how they landed Javier Bardem and what type of villain he's going to play, how Skyfall will show more of Bond and M's relationship/backstory, how he loves what The Dark Knight and Bourne have done in terms of main characters, how audiences have embraced movies that go darker and more personal, the challenge of filming action scenes, and finding new ways to tell a Bond story. Hit the jump to listen or read the interview.
As usual, I'm offering you two ways to get this interview: you can either click here for the audio, or the full transcript is below. Skyfall opens October 26 in the UK and November 9 in the US.
Question: I'm just going to jump in: you've touched on it before, one of the things about this project is that it was, basically, delayed because of MGM's financial stuff and whatever reason. Could you talk about how things changed from when you first got involved, how the delay helped the film and what storylines and stuff got adjusted?
Sam Mendes: Well, it's funny because normally, of course, I'm able to be open about what the movie is and what the storyline is and I can tell you once I've seen it specifically what changed and so I have an interesting answer that I'm not able to use [laughs] because I don't want to give away any story. But, it's fair to say that there's no screenplay that wouldn't be improved by having a year more to work on it. There's always trying to find ways, different interesting ways of telling a story. Particularly with a Bond movie where you have so many things that are necessary within the brief: you have to have different locations, you have to have action sequences, you have to have girls, you have to have Bond, you have to have M, you have to have MI6. You have this list of things that you're given, so now, write a story around it and by the way, you can't use the following cities because the last 25 years of Bond [films] have used them, you can't use the following action sequences because they've done that. The baddies have represented the following things so, you know.
There are times when you think, "Jesus Christ, is there any story left here? What are we going to do?" And then, within that structure, that basic structure, you begin to understand how much freedom you have, particularly if you have an actor like Daniel [Craig] who can take the central character who you can push into areas perhaps he hasn't been in before. One of the things I was very…I think it's fair to say that without the extra time we wouldn't have written such a good baddie and I don't think we would have gotten Javier [Bardem] to play him, for example. One of the things I thought when I watched them, rewatched them, was it's been a while since there was, even with Daniel, there's been a while since there was a classic…what I would call a classic Bond villain. I'm not saying these guys weren't great. I thought Mads [Mikkelsen] was particularly good in Casino Royale. But I wanted somebody perhaps a bit more flamboyant, perhaps a bit more frightening, and so I felt like we needed a great actor to achieve that.
So that's something that came with a bit of time, able to really work on that role so it had something different, special about it. And then it changed again, of course, when Javier said, "Well, I'm interested. Let's start talking," and we talked about the role and it began to develop from there and some of his ideas, I had time to factor in. It wasn't like, "Here's the script. You've got to say 'yes.' We've got two weeks before we start." It was like, "Well, we're probably going to be doing this, but we've got time to discuss how it might be," so again it gave us time to receive his ideas, let them percolate a little bit, get them into the script and then, at a certain point, he trusted that it was something he could make his own, so he ended up doing it. That's a good example of how it actually changes the literal reality of the movie; you've got time to listen and respond.
I have a geek question, as a Bond geek.
Mendes: That's why I did this movie so I could answer geek questions. [laughs] I don't get geek questions. I'm excited. This is my first ever geek question! [laughs]
Going back to [Ian] Fleming and to make Bond more human, there was one film with George Lazenby, which was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, so is there going to be a connection with that movie? What do you think about that movie?
Mendes: It's one of those…it's commonly considered a neglected classic, and I think it is. I think it's one of the two best Fleming novels; it's a great novel. I think it's where you see him, as a character, pushed to the edge because he does fall in love and he loses her and Tracy, the character Diana Rigg plays, is a great character, a feisty woman, his equal in a way, which is a little bit what they did with Vesper in Casino Royale. I love that book. I think that Lazenby was dealt a pretty cruel hand because he was following [Sean] Connery who they just did a home run the first time they got to bat. Connery was a great piece of casting; he was iconic in the role. And then they asked him to do strange things which I thought spoke a little bit of their insecurity, for example, right at the beginning, he turns to camera and says to camera, "That wouldn't happen with the other guy." You know?
Yeah, the fourth wall.
Mendes: The first time I saw the movie, I was like, "You've got to be joking! You can't do that to the poor man!" But it was too…they were playing almost embarrassment, almost apologized for having a new Bond and I thought that was wrong, and I thought what they got right was Casino Royale. There was a kind of "We don't need Q, we don't need Moneypenny. We've got this character. We're going right back to basics. He's real, he's in a real situation. Let's start all over again." I thought that was very refreshing.
That's why I mentioned the word in the press conference, "regeneration" rather than "evolving," because I feel it is like, you know, we have Doctor Who…there's a geek answer…we have Doctor Who and I was brought up on the idea of Doctor Who, who at the end of his final episode, he dissolves and a new actor pops up and he regenerates and it's a whole other character: sometimes it's an old man, sometimes it's a young man, but he just changes. I've always loved that idea.
I'm interested in the way that M's backstory is part of this plot, because the movies recently have been leaning toward making her more human and showing more of her personal life and this seems like it's going to dig into that character more. Why was this the time to flesh out M's backstory and make that really contingent on the plot?
Mendes: I'm not sure we really have much backstory.
I just meant it as her past.
Mendes: We've gone further into their relationship and without giving too much away, I think something interesting happened. I thought it was a master stroke when they cast Judi [Dench] way back, seven movies ago I think, because the character, who was a fairly distant male figure, became this female figure; there was a maternal aspect to it. There was much more complexity in the relationship and I think we've taken that a little further.
It's partly, also, that I didn't just say yes to doing a Bond movie, I said yes to doing a Bond movie with Daniel Craig. This Bond movie, and Judi Dench. Judi, to me, is one of the great actors of the English-speaking world and so it's a question of, well, a little bit like what I was saying with Javier, what can we give her that will take her to another level we've never seen her before? What can we do with her that will surprise or challenge even her? We pushed it further and we pushed other characters further, too. That's what we're trying to do.
You said at the press conference that there was this element of looking at the regret or the conflict about what he does for a living, which is killing people. Definitely, the stakes have been raised in this series for Bond, with Daniel Craig's Bond, the emotional stakes have been raised. Is that where the stakes are going in this? Is it a personal crisis? Is that what he wanted the character to be?
Mendes: I think that what's interesting is you have an actor who is capable of playing the consequences of his actions as well as fulfilling those actions with great elan and cool and that is always more interesting. That's not to say that what I'm looking at or what I want to look at is a kind of navel-gazing depressive [laughs] because that's not what Bond will ever be. He's a doer, not a thinker. And I think you have to understand that. I also think he doesn't walk amongst us. He's not Bourne , he doesn't walk the streets. He's a lone wolf. You have to keep him separate for most of the movie. It's a very particular area he has to exist in.
But, there's a reason why the most interesting, to my mind, franchises now are The Dark Knight and Bourne because there are characters at the center who are, to some degree, in conflict about what they do and are pushed right to the edge. That is one of the wonderful things about what's happened to these movies recently is that audiences have embraced movies that go darker and more personal. Having said that, they all have the thrills and spills you expect, as well. It's about a balance.
How did you become an action director? Did you put yourself through an action-directing school?
Mendes: [laughs] I wish.
What surprised you when you started doing it? Were there moments where you went, "Oh, okay?"
Mendes: I mean, I've directed bits of action and so I knew enough to know that it's long and it's very detailed. I'll put it this way, editing action is a good deal more exciting than shooting action. Shooting action is very, very meticulous, it's increments, tiny little pieces. To me, the challenge is to create parallel action so you're never locked into a linear chase, which I think is something that Chris Nolan, for example, does very, very well. It's never just A following B, there's something else going on simultaneously and you're following these things and often they overlap.
So I work very hard to try and…and again, that's something that we were able to do in the script; we didn't get locked into something that we couldn't get out of, in a way. So, the rest of it is just detail, just detail and shot-making and the business of movie-making but on a much more complex and time-consuming way. It just takes time. You have to sort of…I remind myself that I've spent three weeks working on a sequence that's only going to be four minutes long. It's crazy. I've made movies that cost less than one car chase. But that's part of the pleasure of doing it, pushing yourself in new directions. That's been the pleasure of this particular journey.
For more coverage from our set visit:
- 20 Things to Know About Skyfall From Our Istanbul, Turkey Set Visit; Plus Video Blog Recap
- Daniel Craig and Producer Barbara Broccoli Talk Skyfall, Going "Classic Bond", Invoking the Wit of Ian Fleming and More
- Berenice Marlohe Talks Skyfall, Playing a Femme Fatale/Bond Girl, How She Was Cast, and More
- Naomie Harris Talks Skyfall, Her Favorite Bond and Bond Girl, the Moneypenny Rumors and More


text:
Cropped Mimi / Sun Stone
Composition: 40% post-consumer recycled cotton, 60 % organic cotton.
Fabric: Non-stretch Denim
Contains non-textile parts of animal origin: No
Care: Wash at 30°, wash your jeans inside out, Hang dry.
Fit: Straight fit. Cropped. High waist.
Fastening: Zip fly
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Material and care
- 40% post-consumer recycled cotton, 60 % organic cotton.
- This fabric comes from Royo in Valencia.
- The warp contains 40% recycled cotton.
- Wash at 30°, wash your jeans inside out. Line dry.
Made in Tunisia
Our jeans are made in Tunisia, where our colleagues in the factory work together as a family.
- Nordic Ecolabel
- Cradle 2 Cradle Indigo Dye & paper labels
- ECOCERT Organic Cotton
- GRS Recycled Cotton
Cropped mom jeans. High waist. Zip Fly. Classic five-pocket styling. Satin-finished silvertone buttons and rivets.
Non-stretch denim. 40% post-consumer recycled cotton, 60 % organic cotton.
Laura is 1,77m and is wearing a 27. Size Guide
Shipping & Returns
- Free shipping & returns within the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. View International Rates.
- We accept returns within 14 days.
Return your old jeans
Return your old MUD Jeans or jeans from another brand (at least 96% cotton) and get €10 discount or one month free lease. We will recycle your jeans. Use the Repack envelop and return label you just received with your new purchase to send back your old jeans. This option only applies to the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.


text:
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks ended little changed on Friday, with Wells Fargo & Co. WFC -0.85% weighing on the financial sector after the bank reported a decline in its net interest margin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.13% rose 17.21 points, or 0.1%, to end at 13,488.43; for the week, it gained 0.4%. The S&P 500 index SPX -0.0048% finished virtually unchanged at 1,472.05 compared to 1,472.12 in the previous session, which had marked a five-year closing high. For the week, the index rose 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite index COMP +0.12% climbed 3.88 points, or 0.1%, to end at 3,125.63, posting a weekly rise of 0.8%. In the financial sector, shares of Wells Fargo dropped 0.9% after the bank reported quarterly results.
Read the full story:
Huge stock fund flows have Wall Street abuzz
Huge stock fund flows have Wall Street abuzz


text:
Gun-Toting Shawn Johnson Fan Arrested
Gun-Toting Shawn Johnson Fan Arrested
A man claiming he was "meant to be" with Shawn Johnson was arrested early Tuesday morning after trying to sneak on to the set of "Dancing With the Stars" -- and cops say he had two loaded guns and duct tape in his car.
Johnson's mother, Teri, has just filed a petition for a restraining order against the man, 34-year-old Robert O'Ryan. The restraining order seeks protection for 17-year-old Shawn, her mother, her father and her "Dancing" partner Mark Ballas.
According to documents filed by Johnson, "The LAPD searched [O'Ryan's] vehicle and located a loaded .45 handgun, a loaded shotgun, and materials classically used for kidnapping including duct tape, zip ties, and a map to the victim. Also found were love letters, clippings and other information on the victim."
According to the documents, O'Ryan told police "He had packed all his belongings and permanently left Florida to drive out here to be with [Shawn Johnson], he believes that she speaks to him personally through the television set and through ESP and that they will have a child together, he stated he would be with her no matter what."
According to the CBS incident report, the whole thing started Monday afternoon when a CBS employee noticed O'Ryan jumping a fence and entering a hallway in the East Studio. Private security confronted him and asked for ID -- and that's when O'Ryan produced an expired concealed weapons license. When guards asked if he had a weapon on him, O'Ryan admitted to having 2 guns in his car. At that point, the guards alerted the LAPD.
In the documents, Johnson claims she's "in fear for her life, she is extremely upset by this incident and her entire family and those around are all extremely concerned and fearful that [O'Ryan] might try to kidnap her or harm her in an effort to make good on his statements."
O'Ryan is currently in police custody. He was booked on suspicion of carrying a loaded firearm in public and is being held on $35,000 bail.
Story developing ...
Waiting for your permission to load the comments.


text:
If you have an event you would like to submit to our community calendar, you can do that here.
- This event has passed.
Radnor Educational Foundation's Driving for Excellence Gala & Auction
February 8, 2013 @ 7:00 pm
tThe Radnor Educational Foundation's annual fundraiser "Driving for Excellence," will be held Friday, Feb. 8, featuring an evening of silent and live auctions and golf-themed entertainment.
tAn array of live and silent auction items will be available for bidding. New this year is a Radnor Mystery Box with one special box containing a precious piece of diamond jewelry valued at $2,500 donated by Bernie Robbins Jewelers at The Radnor Hotel. Only 100 boxes will be sold at $100 per box. Cocktail attire is recommended.
tProceeds from the benefit will support a grants program for teachers that enhance classroom curriculum and have the greatest educational impact on all students. Preparing children for the educational, social and emotional challenges they will face in today's society is part of REF's drive for excellence.
tFounded in 1994, the foundation's mission is to secure and provide funding and support to enrich the educational experiences, maintain academic excellence and create innovative opportunities for the students of Radnor Township School District.


text:
Today's globalized world needs flexible minds, able to move across disciplines, capable of tackling challenges with innovative humanistic approaches while recognizing the importance of environmental and economic sustainability and natural and cultural heritage and understanding, while communicating and working with people from other cultures.
Multicultural, International & Interdisciplinary
This program brings together talented, motivated students from the member universities in a truly multicultural, international and interdisciplinary environment. Students enjoy a powerful learning experience in which they develop their capacity for critical thinking, working across disciplines, creatively embracing new ideas.
Each term 140+ students (Bachelor or Master level) take part, choosing from a course offering of 20+ courses which are English-taught by visiting professors from the member universities and are recognized for credit.
Courses on three core topics are on offer every semester. There are two specialization tracks which are offered in alternate semesters.
Core Topics
- Italy
courses that showcase Venetian and Italian life, culture, art and history
- Cultures of the World
courses that examine the cultures of the world; courses that make the most of the intercultural classroom
- Global Challenges
courses that address current, global issues, preferably from an interdisciplinary perspective
Specialization Tracks
- Economics, Management and Digital Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage (Fall only)
The aim of this specialization track is to introduce students to concepts such as Natural and Cultural Heritage, both tangible and intangible; to the challenges posed by their management, preservation and development, in relation to development policies and/or citizenship issues.
- Environmental Management and Sustainable Development (Spring only)
The aim of this specialization track is to develop awareness of Sustainability concepts and issues, applied to the environment and the economy, learning about sustainable practices and management, adopting ethical and cultural approaches
Additional Courses
4-6 courses offered by visiting faculty members, for one semester only


text:
Wisconsin police officer to be honored in memorial
A nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., has voted to add the name of a Milwaukee-area police officer to a national memorial honoring officers killed in the line of duty.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund had previously excluded Wauwatosa police Officer Jennifer Sebena. That's because even though the 30-year-old was fatally shot while on duty Dec. 24, the suspect in the shooting is Sebena's husband, which could make her death a case of domestic violence.
But after pressure from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and others, the group reversed its decision Wednesday.
WPPA spokesman Jim Palmer voted to include Sebena's name on the memorial in the national capital.
Palmer said the final vote was 15 to 0.


text:
By Sandie Palomo-Gonzalez
Nonprofits have an opportunity to receive grant funds to build their organizations' strength, but they must act before the June 15 deadline to apply for a Strengthening Nonprofits (SNP) grant from the San Antonio Area Foundation.
Representatives of nonprofits are invited to attend one of two informational meetings, either Monday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m., or Wednesday, May 23, at 9:30 a.m., to find out about these SNP grants. They will be held at the American Red Cross located at 3642 E. Houston St.
Nonprofits that have benefited from Strengthening Nonprofits grants will share their experiences at both of these meetings.
So, why does the Area Foundation offer the Strengthening Nonprofits grants?
Because we believe that a healthy, vibrant nonprofit sector is critical to the health and vitality of our community, the Area Foundation's Center for Nonprofit Support provides training and technical assistance to the local nonprofit community.
Additionally, in 2010, we participated in a strategic planning process to determine how best to use our discretionary dollars to maximize our impact in the community. Based on the feedback of local stakeholders and national best practices research, we decided to use a portion of our discretionary dollars to implement the Strengthening Nonprofits grant-making initiative. The Area Foundation now makes grants to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations serving Bexar and surrounding counties.
Strengthening Nonprofits grants come in two phases. The Phase I grant enables the organization's leadership to participate in a professional assessment of the organization, the Core Capacity Assessment Tool, or CCAT. That process helps the leadership to identify areas where it could use help in making improvements in order to better fulfill its mission and serve its clients.
Organizations that have taken the CCAT and then convened their board and staff to review the results are eligible to apply for a second, usually larger, Phase II grant.
The Area Foundation has already awarded a number of these grants. They have enabled nonprofit agencies to hire consultants and trainers in the areas of leadership succession, staff development, fundraising, board recruitment, board governance, executive coaching, strategic planning and team-building. Your organization may have other needs that the CCAT could identify.
The sessions on May 21 and 23 will answer questions such as the following, which some organizations recently have asked:
- Is my organization eligible to apply?
- What are the application deadlines?
- What is the Core Capacity Assessment Tool and why should we take it?
- What types of projects do you fund?
While these are not required meetings, we encourage representatives of nonprofit organizations to attend. Our community increasingly depends on your organization to serve so many needs. Please take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen your nonprofit organization.
Please contact Mildred Morales, Program Assistant, at firstname.lastname@example.com or at 210.242.4721 to reserve a space at the meeting. When you register, leave the name of your organization, the name of those attending and the meeting date you will attend.
If you have questions, contact Sandie Palomo-Gonzalez, Assistant Vice President of Grants and Programs, at email@example.com. Please do not contact the American Red Cross.


text:
Request Trial License
Request free-of-charge, 90-day, one-time trial licenses here according to the conditions of your local Siemens organization. Not available in all countries.
More about this process 34.2 kB
Because of some maintenace activities, this service is not available currently.
Please try again later.
Your trial license request was successfully submitted.
Your request for the software will be verified and processed.
Availability and delivery time depends on terms and conditions of your local Siemens organization.
(You will also be sent an e-mail confirming receipt of your request shortly.)
Due to technical reasons your request cannot be completed. Please try again or contact us. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.


text:
We've all heard the excuses before -- "I don't have time" or "I'm never home." Worse than that is "I just wasn't born with a green thumb" or "I've killed every plant I've ever owned!" Well, it's time to put all of those excuses aside and learn about planting a garden that you, too, can maintain.
Low-maintenance gardening allows you to enjoy the time you spend tending to your plants because you won't suddenly find yourself in the middle of an all-weekend project. All it takes is careful consideration of what you plant -- basically, plants that don't require a ton of care.
You can also cut back on gardening chores by considering the style of garden you plant. For example, native meadow grasses and flowers that only need to be mowed once a year are a great addition to a good-size backyard. This way instead of trying to outdo your neighbor by having the most green grass that needs to be mowed every week, you can sit outside and enjoy your native meadow grass and watching your neighbor sweat.
This article will touch on the various ways you can create a low-maintenance garden that meets your needs. Sections include:
- Trouble-Free Planting
Learn how to choose the right plants, taking into consideration not only the layout of your yard and the climate of where you live ,but also how much time you have to give to your plants. For example, you'll want to avoid fast-spreading perennials such as yarrow or bee balm and opt instead for an easy to grow shrub like compact azaleas or heather.
This section will also touch upon how to establish a planting style that jives with your lifestyle. If you don't have a lot of time to fertilize, water, and mow, you'll definetely want to plant an area of your yard with a thick-growing ground cover like pachysandra or wild ginger. A self-sustaining meadow filled with black-eyed Susans, Shasta daisies, coneflowers, and the like is another great option that looks great without much effort.
- Container Gardening
This style of gardening is great because you can use a number of containers that you may already have at home. We'll provide you with helpful tips for creating a unique garden out of various containers, including window boxes, hanging baskets, strawberry pots -- really anything that inspires you. Best of all, container gardens are easily maintained by even the most novice of gardeners. Strong candidates for container gardens include annuals like pansies and sweet peas as well as such perennials as daylilies and oxalis.
In fact, you don't even need to have a yard to create a beautiful container garden. Decks, balconies, front porches -- you name it -- can become a garden oasis with a few well-chosen flowers and some beautiful and unique pots. Because of this, container gardens are also a great option for areas that have very poor soil.
- Annuals and Perennials Container Gardening
Once you figure out just how you want your container garden to appear, then you get to choose the type of flowers to place in your containers. Annual flowers are great choices for container gardens. The majority of annuals nicely fill out the container they are placed in, creating a nice effect for the eye. Perennial flowers can also work in the container garden, and we'll give you tips to help keep them beautiful and healthy.
Some great annual and perennial flowers for container gardening include yellow coneflower, morning glory vine, big blue lily turf, and multiple species of marigold.
Let go of the excuses and find a garden option that works for you. The healthy, vibrant flowers that greet you every day will be all the reward you need.


text:
Take a trip around the world with the numerous eclectic and authentic restaurants in the Gulf Gate area. The area is so chock-full of great eateries, making a decision can be overwhelming. But the myriad of choice offerings proved to be perfect for our monthly Observer progressive dinner.
Editor's note: We will return to the Gulf Gate area again to continue the culinary tour and hit the restaurants we didn't profile this time.
1 DRINK & APPETIZER: Sarasota Brewing Company
Welcome to the "Cheers" of the Gulf Gate area. Everyone that walked in seemed to know someone, and they all definitely knew bartender Tim Maloney. He poured us two of the restaurant's own Sarasota Gold and Sunset Red beers ($3.75 each) — and, to go along with our hops, we ordered the shark bites ($7.59).
The bite-sized fresh Mako shark in tangy Polynesian beer marinade was tasty and a nice change of pace from typical bar offerings.
2 ENTRÉE: Déjà Vu
Déjà Vu's fresh menu is impressive in that it changes weekly and everything is homemade, even the pasta.
The restaurant receives whole, fresh fish daily, which is filleted in-house. My meal included Mediterranean gazpacho — which was so flavorful that my bowl was quickly empty. I, then, had the chicken alfredo ($24.95), and my companion tried the chef's choice of pan-seared hog snapper ($31.95). Although the meals were on the expensive side, the atmosphere is comfortable and intimate and perfect for a date or catching up with friends.
3 DESSERT: Paris to Budapest
At Paris to Budapest, we felt instantly comfortable and were warmly welcomed by co-owner Susan Joo (she's the Hungarian half; her partner, Anthony Delphin, is the French half).
On to dessert: The Gundel pancakes ($6.50) were an explosion of many different flavors. The white-chocolate-amaretto crème brulee ($6.95) was delectable and one of the best we have tasted. The cake/tart of the day, an apple parfait ($6.25), was the perfect ending with its combination of tart and sweet. A perfect ending to dinner.
4 DRINK & ENTERTAINMENT: Irish Rover Pub
You know you've arrived at the Irish Rover Pub when the parking lot is full and rockin' tunes are coming from inside. The smoke-free pub offers Irish fare and live music nightly (until 10 p.m.). We enjoyed a Strongbow cider on tap and a soft drink ($6.50) while listening to Paul Duffy's band, which had everyone in the place tapping their feet. You just can't help but enjoy yourself. We are looking forward to returning on a Sunday night to hear the talents of Jazz Juvenocracy, a band of six musicians with an average age of 15.
Sarasota Brewing Co.
6607 Gateway Ave., Sarasota. 925-2337.
Open 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to midnight Sunday.
Déjà Vu
2164 Gulf Gate Drive, Sarasota. 926-2994.
Summer hours: Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Paris to Budapest
6551 Gateway Ave., Sarasota. 552-9707.
Summer hours: Open 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday and Sunday until Labor Day.
Irish Rover Pub
6514 Gateway Ave., Sarasota. 926-1060.
Summer hours: Open 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 4:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Take a trip around the world with the numerous eclectic and authentic restaurants in the Gulf Gate area. The area is so chock-full of great eateries, making a decision can be overwhelming. But the myriad of choice offerings proved to be perfect for our monthly Observer progressive dinner.


text:
Despite 2 or 3 ER visits for fevers/minor illness, some weird labs mandating numerous consecutive blood draws and a lot of worry on my part, regular clinic visits, regular blood draws, twice daily anti-rejection medication, a weird but resolvable period of time balancing LuLu's Prograf level and liver enzyme numbers- (that was a mouth full) we have had a phenomenal 16-month stint without being hospitalized. (high kick, toe-touches...GO LULU!, that hurt my groin because I am no longer a flexible cheerleader like I was 13 years ago- but she deserves a little cheer)
I never could have imagined we'd actually go more than several weeks or a few months without the interruption of a hospital stay in our lives. It has only been the past few months that I'm finally no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe we will ride this wave for quite sometime before it crashes and we return to Primary Childrens Hospital, IV's and solitary confinement in the ICSU, I ought to just enjoy every minute until then. And, I am. It's been a rewiring of my brain not to think of every move we make in terms of "LuLu could get sick...if we-________" fill in a very normal, outside of our home activity such as a movie in a theatre or the aquarium. I know she really was given a literal second chance at life the day she was given Ashley's liver- and I have to let her live. (have to, have to, have to...note to self) I don't plan to home school, (which I would totally suck at anyways) she is in traditional preschool---and it's the traditional path we plan to stay on as long as we possibly can. She's in her second year of ballet with her best little friends and it still feels like a blessing from above every Tuesday as we gear up for dance. We've gone to movies in theatres, museums, the zoo, vacations, Disneyland, every park within 20 miles, play dates in other peoples homes and here we still stand. (visits do and always will exclude restaurant playlands and riding in the carts at grocery stores that have a car on the front end) I don't follow her around anymore spraying everything before she touches it, (well sometimes I do when I didn't forget the bottle in my trunk) though I want to in my heart every single step she takes. Germs to me are like the monster under the bed, boogy man in the closet, the creepy guy in the van with no windows. Actually, we own a bright neon green work van with no windows- but at least it's a tender, sweet, cute, young Latino boy named Tonio driving it. Next time we will invest in windows.
I still wish I had her in controlled, steralized environment every minute of every day, but know it isn't
I'm so grateful I no longer self-identify as a mother of an ill child though I'll never forget that feeling or my empathy for other moms walking in those shoes. That's all I felt like I was for a few years-- now I am just a mother who has to be careful with her precious, fragile immune-system-girl because of what may be trolling around the next turn.
I'd say we have been very lucky as our liver friend Lydia battled cancer after her transplant, our little Harmonee-major rejection issues for well over a year...many people are not able to hold on to life before an organ becomes available. The woman who received the other half of Ashley's liver died within the first several months post-transplant. I really wanted to meet her one day, put Ashley's liver back together- side by side with lulu. Maybe in Heaven. I know it could have been much harder, much worse or the worst tragedy in my life to lose her, but she is here and I am extremely grateful.
Our magic, SECRET recipe that I plan to sell for a lot of money, become mega rich and make some major headway on the worlds orphan crisis (146 million and counting fyi) is this:
16 cups of dumb luck mixed with-
2 1/2 cups of crazy, neurotic Mom & Dad
4 cups of Clorox bleach
dash of pink glitter
5 cups Organic Almond Milk
Daily princess vitamins
a smidge of Barbie hair blended with a Crayola crayon
Mix all together, Bake at 450, for 48 minutes
Cool, serve over ice cream while you pray with your fingers, eyes and toes crossed that the health Gods will forever be in your favor.